Dynamic LED backlighting provides LCD TVs with sharper picture quality and overall lower power consumption than TVs of the previous generations. ASTRI estimates that more than three million LCD TVs with dynamic backlight control will be sold worldwide by the end of 2009. The institute expects the market will skyrocket over the next half-dozen years, and plans to help its customers to command the lion's share of this emerging market. Since 2004, the majority of leading LCD TV manufacturers have employed dynamic backlight control techniques in their products; however, the technology and customer requirements continue to evolve. New entrants to the LCD TV market seek to carve out a competitive advantage over dominant players by getting to market faster with better image quality and lower power consumption.

"Xilinx Spartan-3 Generation FPGAs allow ASTRI's dynamic LED backlight control technology to become more flexible in meeting different customers' differentiation requirements," said Dr. C.J. Tsai, Director, Display System Division, LED Programme, ASTRI. "In the LCD television market, where the race to develop new products is intense, faster time-to-market is key to business success. Xilinx FPGAs offered us greater flexibility to customize our application with lower system costs, and significantly reduced our product development time. The extensive support provided by Xilinx and the strong technical support offered by its distribution sales team Avnet Memec China were the other factors that prompted us to choose Xilinx FPGAs over competing solutions."

"Our Spartan series FPGAs offer an unmatched combination of low power, high performance and low cost, which has made them the number one choice for LCD TV manufacturers around the world for multiple generations," added Clement Cheung, Marketing and Application Director for Xilinx Asia Pacific. "As the worldwide PLD industry leader, Xilinx and Avnet are proud to partner with ASTRI to bring innovative technology to the quickly evolving flat panel display market."

About Xilinx Flagship Spartan FPGAs

Xilinx flagship Spartan FPGAs are the low-power, low-cost silicon foundation for Xilinx Targeted Design Platforms. The company's next-generation Spartan-6 FPGAs are designed for cost-sensitive applications requiring high-speed connectivity and low-power operation with embedded serial transceivers, advanced power management, and proven 45-nanometer architecture. Domain-optimized devices provide a rich mix of integrated system features including memory controllers, digital signal processing, and PCIe(R) Endpoint block, as well as RoHS-compliant lead-free package options for developing 'greener' electronics products. For more information about Spartan FPGAs, visit: www.xilinx.com/spartan6 or www.xilinx.com/spartan3a.

Designers can learn more about Xilinx Targeted Design Platforms by attending X-fest, a global series of free technical seminars sponsored by Avnet and Xilinx. These free one-day seminars offer practical training for engineers. To register for an X-fest event, visit http://www.weboom.com/avnet/index.html.

About ASTRI

The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) was founded by the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2000 to enhance technological advances for Hong Kong through applied research. In 2006, ASTRI was designated the Hong Kong Research and Development Centre for Information and Communications Technologies by the Innovation and Technology Commission to perform leading-edge research and development (R&D) for technology transfer to industry, develop technological human resources and act as a focal point bringing together industry and university R&D assets.

During the past few years, ASTRI has been conducting a spectrum of world-class and customer-focused R&D, and has built teams of excellent researchers, produced a volume of intellectual properties and created real economic impact by transferring technologies to its clients in Hong Kong, the Mainland and the region. For more information, please visit www.astri.org

About Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia

Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia is part of Phoenix-based Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a Fortune 500 company with fiscal 2009 sales exceeding USD16.23 billion. Serving customers in more than 70 countries, Avnet is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology.

Avnet Electronics Marketing has a significant presence in Asia-Pacific - the fastest growing electronics market in the world. With its regional headquarters in Singapore, the company has offices in over 40 locations in Asia. Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia distributes semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical components to serve a wide range of customers including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers, and small- to medium-sized businesses, and provides associated design-chain and supply-chain services. The company's web site is located at www.em.avnetasia.com.

About Xilinx

Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.

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XILINX, the Xilinx logo, Virtex, Spartan, ISE, and other designated brands included herein are trademarks of Xilinx in the United States and other countries. PCI-SIG, PCI, PCIe and PCI Express are trademarks of PCI-SIG and used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

    Editorial Contacts:
    Melissa Zhang
    Xilinx Asia Pacific
    (86) 10-6268-2899 ext. 806
    melissa.zhang@xilinx.com

SOURCE Xilinx Inc.

http://www.xilinx.com

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The cover story for this issue examines the U.S. Department of Defense global information grid (GIG) - an elaborate worldwide network for coordinating intelligence and military actions worldwide - providing readers with an inside look at how the defense department and its many contractors use Xilinx FPGAs to speed up the GIG, thereby reducing response time on the "networked battlefield."

The issue also includes methodology and how-to articles, and an entirely new section called Xclamations! Xcell readers are invited to write a humorous caption for an interesting piece of art. After deliberations, Xcell's staff will reward the author of the best caption with a new Spartan(R)-6 FPGA SP601 Evaluation Kit (read the contest rules at www.xilinx.com/xcellcontest).

"The Fall edition of Xcell Journal has a rich mix of articles," said Xcell Journal Publisher Mike Santarini. "I believe anyone interested in FPGAs - and not just Xilinx customers - will find this issue a great read and may even pick up tips they can immediately apply to their designs. I also encourage all our readers to submit a caption for our new Xclamations! section. The word-crafty winner will receive our new Spartan-6 FPGA SP601 Evaluation Kit--who knows, maybe they'll be so inspired they'll put their writing skill to further use and pen an Xcell article about their experience with the kit."

Cover Story:

    --  Xilinx FPGAs to Power Next-Generation Networked Battlefield

Design Methodology, Application & How-to Features

    --  How to Tame the Power Beast in Consumer Handheld MPUs
    --  FPGAs Help Measure Trajectory of Particles in CERN's Proton Synchrotron
    --  Hardware-Centric Approach Builds More Reliable Medical Devices
    --  Implementing Wireless LAN Interface in an FPGA
    --  Improving DDR SDRAM Efficiency with a Reordering Controller
    --  Splayed Makes Pin Fin Heat Sinks Cooler

    --  How to supercharge MicroBlaze Processing with Hardware Acceleration

Opinions and Xtras

    --  Customer Collaboration, Teamwork are Key to Next-Gen FPGA Development
    --  Why Software Programmability of Electronics Is a Game Changer

    --  Partner Product News, The Latest Application Notes, and ISE and IP
        Updates

About Xcell Journal

Xcell Journal is an award-winning quarterly magazine that provides electronic designers of programmable digital systems with in-depth technical information regarding the latest advances in hardware and software technologies, systems, applications, services, and support. This digital magazine is available free and accessible on any standard Internet browser, requiring no software downloads and allowing readers to browse, search, make notes, email author and click through to advertiser web sites.

Xcell Journal is distributed worldwide to a subscriber base of application engineers, consultants, corporate executives, and engineering managers; hardware, software and system engineers; marketing professionals, educators, and researchers. For additional information, or to download individual Xcell Journal articles in PDF format, go to Xcell Online. To subscribe now, go to www.xcellpublications.com/subscribe.

About Xilinx

Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.

#0953c

Xilinx, the Xilinx logo, Virtex, Spartan, and other designated brands included herein are trademarks of Xilinx in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

    Editorial Contacts:
    Lisa Washington
    Xilinx, Inc.
    408-626-6272
    lisa.washington@xilinx.com

SOURCE Xilinx

http://www.xilinx.com